Easy Method For Tapping a Spring For Water

Sunday July 16, 2023 Guerneville CA.

There is a video on this at YouTube here.

https://youtu.be/4Gv5GB4XJW0

Water spring tapping day

That was the plan. I hopped on the bike and rode on up into the forest towards the spring I was working on. But I ran into this tree that just came down, since yesterday. I was able to break off some of the tree’s lower branches to get by.

Spring work area

I made it up to where I was working on the spring. The spring is coming out of the hillside up by the blue bucket.

Outlet

I’ve installed the outlet pipe and am building up the dam which I also call a little sink where the water comes down and goes into the outlet which is the green gutter down spout pipe which is two  inch as is the outlet pipe.

The sink

This is the little catch basin where the water comes out of the hill above the green thingy and goes into the green outlet. The dirt slopes up for the dam making a little sink. The dam only has to be about six inches above the outlet pipe and needs to be made so any overflow will spell out over the dam, such as when a winter rain storm hits. The whole thing is kept as small as possible which makes it easier to construct and  easier to keep it clean from contaminates. It’s now ready for the stainless steel kitchen screen, put on upside down. Note that there is no puddle of water in there. What come out of the hill goes right down  into the drain pipe with no puddles.  That’s to help things keep clean and sanitary.

Kitchen screen

I push the rim of the screen down into the clay dirt to help seal the outlet off from roots growing down into it. Now it needs some rocks.

Rocks

I like these types of rocks over round rock types. I found these around the work site. The cracks provide paths for the water to get into the outlet pipe and help keep critters out of the system. It also keeps the dirt from falling in as I fill the hole all the way up with rocks, pushing them all the way into the back of the hole.

I continued to fill up the hole with rocks, gathering more around the work site with the bucket. Still need more rocks.

I’ve filled the thing all the way up with rocks and also put some down the spot where the water might come out in the winter so it doesn’t wash out.

The seal

There’s at least two ways to seal this thing up. You could put a layer of smaller rocks on top of the bigger rocks and then put about six inches or more of dirt on top of that.

Or you can use plastic to form a layer over the big rocks. I use plastic chicken feed sacks as I have a lot of them. I put them over the rocks, like shingles are laid. Then I cover it up with dirt and rocks. I didn’t complete the dirt yet to illustrate what this looks like. When I’m done you won’t see the plastic.

Done

Here’s the completed project, all covered up. I should note that if one needs to get into this to repair it or something, it’s easy to remove the stuff and  get into it to fix it and then put it back together. Smaller always helps in this as there’s far less to move.

Adapt

This is the way I do it. The methods are important but you can use different materials to do this, adapt, or improve. The main difference from this method and what most other people do is this method lets all the water out and doesn’t hold any of it back. Most other methods back up the water. For sanitation purposes, let the water out and into a tank. That way, you will also get every drop of water from the system and none will leak out.

Spring output

I made a small hole at the bottom for critters and birds to drink out of. The noise from the fall of the water also is good for attracting critters and birds. This spring is putting out a little over a gallon a minute right now. It will likely slow up some as the summer progresses.

Water tanks

I stopped t check our water tanks on the way home and they where almost full. Great. The spring I just tapped doesn’t go into these tanks, but it could, if need be.

Sunset

I was sitting in the yard enjoying the evening when I noticed the sunset . I thought this was fog coming in from the ocean, but I was wrong.

It turned out to be rain clouds, as shortly after this some big drops started to fall, but not for very long.

The bad part is I saw some lightning and heard a lot more of it to my west where it has the possibility of starting forest fires, like it did a couple years ago. Time will tell.

Nice day.